I believe that Mr. Obama and Mr. Doar harm both groups by ignoring the societal effects of family court decisions.

The key to the argument is Mr. Doar’s statement that states can earn additional funds if their collection rate increases. I have read that most states receive 2-$3 for every support dollar collected.

Therefore, states receive far more from the Feds if one parent has 80-90% custody time.

A parent can achieve this either by demonizing the other parent or by simply moving to a distant location, making frequent contact by the non-custodial parent all but impossible.

This is a major reason that 40% of all US children (50% of Hispanic and 73% of black ones) grow up in one-parent homes, which greatly increases societal costs since these living situations are correlated with much higher rates of crime, substance abuse and suicide.

The people of Massachusetts voted in 2006 to address this issue by voting 86%-14% to make 50/50 child custody the default position of courts in the state.

This could have been a powerful pilot program were it not widely ignored by family court judges in the Bay State.